Back in the day

When King James V of Scotland died in 1542, his two sons had already died in infancy and his only surviving child—a daughter—was just a week old. The infant Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned nine months later in an elaborate coronation at Stirling Castle, where she would spend her early years. Laden with regal robes, the tiny sovereign cried throughout the entire ceremony. Soon thereafter, King Henry VIII of England attacked Scotland in an attempt to force what to happen to Mary?

Feature

A limes—plural limites—was a fortified military road of the Roman Empire. Over time, the term came to be associated with continuous barriers punctuated by watchtowers and forts. In Germany and Raetia, one such limes stretched 345 miles (555 km) along the Roman border. Though not impenetrable, limites deterred raiding parties and allowed the Romans to control communications along frontiers. In some places, they were used to guard caravan routes. What two famous limites were built across Britain?

Born on a day like today

Tolstoy was a Russian novelist and philosopher. Considered one of the world's greatest writers, he is perhaps most famous for his masterpieces, War and Peace, a vast prose epic of the Napoleonic invasion of 1812, and Anna Karenina, about the tragedy of a woman's faith in romantic love. Tolstoy was an anarchist and disapproved of all organizations based on the premise of force, including the government and the church. How many characters are there in War and Peace?